The Fellowship of the Lord’s Plate is a community of generous supporters who have demonstrated their commitment to the mission of WISDOM Home Schooling through a monthly gift. Their support helps to embolden, bolster, and support parents as primary educators to nurture their children to embrace Truth, Goodness, and Beauty.
Before founding the Gilbertine Order in 1131, St Gilbert founded a school and served as Master of Schools, educating local boys and girls. His Order came into being when seven of his female students asked him for a monastic rule, habit, and enclosure. The community would grow as a double house of men and women — that of a willing people of the voluntary poor of Christ. The way by which they went was narrow, but was to eternal life.
The Gilbertines undertook all manner of work: tending sheep, teaching in schools, caring for the sick in hospitals, brewing, and whatever else was required. Yet St Gilbert’s foremost concern was always the personal holiness of his flock. So it was that he included in the Holy Rule a particular devotion to the “Plate of the Lord Jesus”—the custom of setting aside a portion of the community’s best food to be shared with the poor and the hungry.
Today, the observance of the Lord’s Plate is carried on by the Companions of St Gilbert, expressed as a tangible concern for those in need through personal works of charity. Members of the Fellowship of the Lord’s Plate enter into this long, noble and faithful tradition of love of God and neighbour by supporting the educational mission of WISDOM Home Schooling.
